Comet
by Data Girl 3
Summary: A shapeshifting Alien serial killer, called Karanga, is being pursued by the Galactic Federation's top bounty hunter, known only as Comet. To escape Comet, Karanga disguises himself as Pleakley.
1. Prologue

**Comet**

Note: This takes place shortly after Splodyhead

Rated PG for mild violence in chapter 3

* * *

Out in the vast regions of space, an ancient-looking spaceship maneuvered easily through an asteroid field. While the outer appearance of the ship appeared to be battered and run-down, the interior revealed it to be state-of-the-art. A heavily armored figure sat at the controls, piloting the craft. The figure glanced down through the helmet's thick eye visor at a navigational panel, showing an image of the planet Earth.

"So, _This _is where I find you, Karanga," the armored figure mused in a voice that was made steely and robotic by the grated mouthpiece built into the helmet. "Very well. Continue to run while you can. I am the Comet, and I always appreciate prey that provide me with a challenge." As Comet piloted the ship out of the asteroid field and past a rusty red planet, a dome-shaped robot hovered up beside Comet.

"At your command, Master Comet, I searched the roster and identified all noted Aliens who are registered on this planet."

"Thank you, Gigavolt. Proceed with the identification. What did you find?"

"Thus far, there are technically only three registered Alien life-forms living here, all on an island called Kauai."

"Technically? What does that mean?"

"Numerous genetic experiments can also be found there, but I didn't see applicable reason to label them as actual Aliens. Generally speaking, they are merely creations, like me."

"Genetic… experimentation, huh? Gigavolt, these registered Aliens; would one be known as Jookiba?"

"Yes, if you are referring to the disgraced scientist from KweltaKwan, who…"

"Yes, yes, yes," Comet replied, waving a gloved hand impatiently. "We all know what he did. So, who else is there?"

"An Earthophile Plorganar, and your old friend, the former Captain." 

"Are you talking about 'Guppy Gill'? He is not my friend. He never has been."

"I know," Gigavolt beeped. Comet, after a moment, chuckled.

"Gigavolt, I do believe you've finally started developing a sense of humor. Very well then, prepare for landing." As Gigavolt moved off to his post, Comet looked out to the Planet Earth, which was coming closer every moment.

"Jookiba. Now that's a name I never thought I'd ever hear again. I believe things just got more interesting."


	2. Chapter 1: The Arrival

On the island of Kauai, Pleakley was returning home with two full bags of groceries. It was a bright day with not a cloud in the sky. Suddenly, he was stopped by the sound of someone moving around in the bushes.

"Who's there?" Pleakley asked, looking towards the noise. "If that's just the little monster or another one of Jumba's evil experiments…." The one-eyed Alien was interrupted by a strange sounding laugh, a laugh that did not sound like one that would belong to an experiment. As soon as he heard it, Pleakley began shaking. Slowly, he backed away, but he walked into something hard and cold. Trembling, Pleakley looked up to see a seven-foot insect-like Alien starring down at him. The strange Alien's twin eyes glowed an eerie blood red, and his ant-like jaws clicked together menacingly. Before Pleakley could scream, the Insect Alien grabbed him by the neck and dragged Pleakley off into the underbrush, the black wig Pleakley had been wearing falling off in the process. The violent sounds of a struggle rose up, then quickly died down. After a few minutes had passed, a figure came back out onto the path. The figure appeared to be Pleakley, until he smiled in grim satisfaction and his single eye glowed red. The Pleakley Imposter gathered up the fallen groceries and placed the wig on his head while, hidden carefully in the bushes, the real Pleakley lay covered in fresh bruises and bleeding wounds, appearing lifeless, apart from the subtle rise and fall of his chest.


	3. Chapter 2: Pod or Marble?

"Well, that's another one of your cousins that the Big Dummy won't get, Stitch!" Lilo smiled, holding the experiment pod as the two walked up the path to the Pelekai household. "Now let's get this to Jumba so it can be cataloged." Suddenly, Stitch stopped and began to look around, sniffing the air.

"What is it, Stitch?" Lilo asked. Stitch didn't answer, and continued sniffing and looking around in puzzlement. "Stitch, come on. Let's go home." Lilo started to pull Stitch's arm, but he pulled away with such force that Lilo dropped the experiment pod. The pod rolled down the path until it rolled into an open hand. The hand belonged to a young woman of Mexican decent with silver-gray hair and green eyes. She was dressed in a black tank top, form fitting pants, and a red sun-visor. The woman picked up the pod and looked at it for a moment before walking up to Lilo and Stitch.

"You should be more careful in the future, poco amigo." The woman smiled, handing Lilo the experiment pod. "You don't want to lose such a fine looking marble."

"Uh, thanks, lady."

"Please, you may call me Halley."

"I'm Lilo, and this is my dog, Stitch."

"Hello, Lilo. Actually, I'm glad I ran into you. I was just looking for a local. You see, I'm here on business, but I'm having a little trouble finding a place to stay. Do you recommend anyplace?"

"How about the Birds of Paradise?" Lilo offered. "It's very nice there."

"Why, thank you, Lilo. You're very helpful." Halley suddenly looked down at her leg, where Stitch was rubbing up against her, like a cat would when it wanted to be fed. "Well, your dog is certainly very friendly, isn't he?"

"Yeah, it's funny. I've never seen him take to anyone so fast." Lilo replied, looking at Stitch in surprise. Halley, meanwhile, was now crouching down to the ground and offering Stitch a piece of a strange food that Lilo could not identify. Stitch, however, practically inhaled the small piece of food, letting out a contented grunt. Halley chuckled and scratched Stitch's head before getting up. "Well, thanks again for the information, Lilo. I hope I'll see you and Stitch again soon." Halley was about to leave when she looked up at something behind Lilo and Stitch. The two turned to see Pleakley looking at Halley in shock.

"Oh, Pleakley!" Lilo waved, not noticing Halley lower her sun visor to look at Pleakley through the tinted lens and narrow her eyes. "I didn't even hear you coming."

"Lilo, get into the house now!" Pleakley cried urgently.

"What? Why?"

"Just do it, young lady!" Lilo waved good-bye to Halley as she and Stitch walked over to meet Pleakley who immediately ushered them into the house.

"You two shouldn't be talking with absolute strangers like that." Pleakley scolded.

"You've never had a problem with it before," Lilo reasoned.

"Well, your sister wouldn't approve." Pleakley closed the door behind them. From the path, Halley stared at the house with narrowed eyes.

"Ráfaga," Halley snarled. "Things just got more difficult."


	4. Chapter 3: A Killer Revealed

"Pleakley, what are you doing?" Lilo asked the one-eyed Alien.

"I'm trying to iron. Isn't it obvious?"

"Well, you didn't plug it in," Lilo observed, pointing to the empty electrical socket. After Pleakley stared down at the plug awkwardly for a moment, and finally plugged the iron in slowly, Lilo continued.

"Are you feeling okay, Pleakley? You've been acting weird for the past three days."

"I've never been better. I just need to get more sleep, that's all." Pleakley snapped before heading into the kithen. Lilo looked after him for a moment, then went upstairs to find Jumba.

"Jumba?" Lilo knocked on the door and walked in. "Pleakley has been acting strange lately. Well stranger then usual. He didn't seem to remember how to cook dinner last night, and just now, he forgot to plug the iron in. Is it just me, or did you notice it, too?"

"Little girl is making good observation. I recall Pleakley to be wery good at sewing on loose buttons on lab coat. But I asked him to do so this morning, and the job seemed to be done by amateur with all thumbs."

"Do you think Pleakley is sick?"

"Huh. If I didn't know better, I would be saying that this is not Pleakley."

Unknown to Jumba and Lilo, Pleakley had been listening outside the door. As he walked off, a furious expression on his face, his single eye glowed red.

Later that day, Lilo was outside with Stitch, making a new grass skirt for Lilo's hula class. Stitch was just handing Lilo the last grass blade, when he noticed the figure heading toward them very quickly.

"Lilo, watch out!" Stitch cried out, shoving Lilo out of the way, seconds before Pleakley struck out with a carving knife.

"Pleakley, what are you doing?" Lilo looked up at her friend in shock and fear.

"You know too much." Pleakley lifted up the knife to strike, kicking Stitch aside in the process.

"KARANGA!" All three turned to see a heavily armored figure that had appeared on the path, pointing something that looked like a plasma cannon at Pleakley.

"Bravo, Comet," Pleakley laughed. "You always did like to make a grand entrance.

"Back away from that child, Karanga," Comet ordered. "Do not test my patience any longer. It's been challenging tracking you down, but I've had it with this game of cat and mouse." Pleakley suddenly grabbed Lilo's arm and held her in front of him.

"You want to shoot me, Comet? You'll have to go through her." Comet remained rooted to the spot, the plasma cannon still pointed at Pleakley, but with no finger on the trigger.

Karanga, you abono del monstruo," Comet snarled.

"What's the matter, Comet? Can't harm an innocent to get to me? That was always your weakness."

"A sure sign of a fool, Karanga- mocking what you can _never _understand." Comet replied in a level voice. "Unlike you, I take no joy in shedding the blood of an innocent."

"Lilo!" Comet turned her head to see Nani, who was returning from work, had just walked up to see the face-off. Pleakley, shoving Lilo roughly to the ground, took advantage of Comet's distraction to lunge at the armored figure and pinned Comet to the ground. Before everyone's eyes, Pleakley's hand transformed into a black insect-like pincer, which struck Comet's helmet. The sound of shattering glass rang through the air as the eye visor shattered, littering the ground with the shards. The pincer struck again, this time knocking the helmet clean off. The helmet flew off into the trees, leaving the Comet's actual face exposed. Lilo instantly recognized the face.

"Halley!" Lilo's voice caused Pleakley to turn back to the house. Nani was holding Lilo protectively, with Stitch ready to defend his family. The commotion had even brought Jumba outside to see what was going on. Pleakley stood up and, with the knife held firm in the pincer, raced toward the group. Stitch leapt for Pleakley's neck only to be stuck aside. Stitch went flying and rammed hard into the side of the dune buggy, where he slid to the ground and sat in a daze. Pleakley was about to strike down at Nani and Lilo when Jumba grabbed him and threw him to the ground. Halley once again was up, and staring down at Pleakley, the plasma cannon aimed for his heart. After a moment, Pleakley snarled and grabbed a handful of dirt, which he threw into Halley's eyes. Halley cried out in pain, trying to get the dirt out of her eyes. Pleakley once again took advantage of Halley's momentary diversion to slash into her side with the knife, where the armor was weak, drawing blood. Before Halley could retaliate, Pleakley lifted her up clean off her feet, and threw her into the trees, where she was lost from view. Pleakley then transformed his other hand into a long tentacle, which lashed out and grabbed Lilo. As soon as Lilo was in his grasp, transparent fly-like wings sprouted from Pleakley's back and he flew off, with Lilo in tow.

"Lilo!" Nani cried, watching her sister and her abductor disappear from sight.


	5. Chapter 4: His name is Karanga!

"I don't believe it," Nani shook her head in disbelief. "Why would Pleakley try to kill us, then kidnap Lilo? It doesn't make sense."

"I am not so sure that was Pleakley," Jumba noted.

"Then who was he?"

"His name is Karanga!" Everyone turned to the new voice to see Halley standing close by, holding to a tree for support. Crimson fell to the ground in large drops from the gaping wound in her side, and her face carried many cuts from when her helmet's eye visor was shattered. A slow flow of blood was also trickling down from the corner of her mouth.

"Kara… what?" Nani blinked.

"Karanga," Halley continued, wiping the blood off her chin, and limping up to the group. "He's a notorious shape-shifting Alien serial killer who has the death sentence on no less then twenty planetary systems. I've been after his filthy hide for years, and now he has come here to Earth. He knew it was against my bounty-hunting creed to go through innocents to get to my prey, so he disguised himself as your Ploganar friend. Pleakley, is it? He must have scanned his memories to learn your identities and fool all of you into believing that he was the genuine article. I admit, my patience was tested to its limits, but when he believed that you were starting to see past his disguise, and turned on the young child and her little blue friend, I couldn't stay at bay any longer, so I confronted him. You know the rest."

"But why did he take Lilo?" Nani asked desperately. "He's not going to…"

"He probably just wishes to use her as a hostage to prevent me from taking him down. Or course, I wouldn't put anything past him. He is quite ruthless."

"So Lilo's going to …" Nani couldn't bring herself to say the dreaded d-word.

"I never said that, Señorita. I made a promise long ago to stop Karanga no matter what, and your sister's abduction was my fault. I give you my word, on my honor as a bounty hunter for the Galactic Federation, that she will be safe."

"And what of Pleakley?" Jumba asked. Halley removed a controller from her utility belt and pressed a button. Instantly, an anti-gravity stretcher entered the clearing.

A heavily bandaged and weak-looking Pleakley was sitting on the stretcher, with his eye nearly swollen shut.

"Let's just say he's very lucky I was able to locate him shortly after Karanga got his miserable pincers him. Now that he's save with you, I have a killer to stop."

"You promise Lilo won't be hurt?" Nani begged.

"I gave you my word of honor as a bounty hunter. When a bounty hunter of the Galactic Federation gives you their word of honor, they are bound for eternity." Halley turned to walk off, but Jumba, took her arm in his hand, stopping her.

"I am not thinking you should be going alone. You were hurt badly, too."

"Trust me, Dr. Jookiba," Halley replied, pulling his hand off her arm. "These are mere scratches compared to some of the other injuries I received chasing after Karanga."

"How are you knowing…?"

"Who you are? I'll explain later. For now, you all stay here. I'll be back with young Lilo. I promise."

"Naga!" Stitch exclaimed, blocking her way. "Stitch help too."

"My apologies, but I can't accept your help, amigo. I work alone. I have been for a long time now. I'll have enough trouble keeping the child from harm. I can't be looking out for you as well."

"Lilo is Ohana! Can't leave her behind." Halley threw her hands into the air in frustration.

"Fine, you stubborn little furball. But don't expect me to come to your rescue again, because I won't."

"You're really going to do this, Halley?" Pleakley asked, trying to force his eye open.

"First off, don't try to strain yourself," Halley ordered. "You're injuries haven't healed enough yet. Second of all, I have been after Karanga for too long, but it _will _all end today. I swear before this day is over, he will be stopped, or I will be dead."


	6. Chapter 5: Halley’s Story

"I still don't understand what's going on," Nani said, once Halley and Stitch had hurried off. "Who is this person anyway?"

"Her name is Halley Proxima," Pleakley began. "But many know her as the Comet."

"What!" Jumba cried. "She's the Comet? You have to being kidding us!"

"Comet?" Nani asked. "Who's that?"

"The Comet," Jumba explained, "is the Galactic Federation's top bounty hunter. There was not being a single Alien who has not heard of the Comet."

"The Comet had a reputation of being both mysterious and very dangerous." Pleakley added. "They say no one has ever seen the Comet's face and lived to tell about it. They say that the Comet only answers to the Grand Councilwoman herself."

"I still am not seeing how the Comet could be a mere Earth female." Jumba shook his head.

" Halley explained the whole story to me when she was tending to my injuries." Pleakley said. "In the forties, an Alien spacecraft crashed in New Mexico. All the Aliens aboard were killed. The spacecraft and the Alien bodies were located by government officials and placed under high security. In the aftermath, of the crash, the government officials started experimenting with the Alien technology they had confiscated. One of the officials was Halley's father. One day, when Halley was still young, about Lilo's age, her father was test piloting the repaired Alien spacecraft, taking Halley with him. But, in the middle of the test flight, when Halley's father was finished testing the hyperdrive unit, they came out in the middle of a meteor shower. One of the meteors damaged the main engine, and the ship crash-landed on a planet- the planet Turo. Halley and her father were both injured in the crash, but since Halley's father spent the last moments before the crash making sure Halley was secure in her seat, and didn't have time to secure himself, Halley's injuries were less severe. As a result, Halley was able to survive the crash, while her father died before morning came. And since Halley had no actual knowledge of Earth's coordinates, she was stranded. Halley grew up on Turo, and eventually became the bounty hunter, Comet.

"I suppose that is being understandable, and believable." Jumba nodded.

"But then why is she here, now?" Nani asked.

"Well, Karanga's her target. She followed him down here to Earth, and arrived shortly after he did. I accidentally ran into Karanga myself, and he must have known Halley was on Earth as well, because he decided to impersonate me, leaving me for dead in the bushes. But Halley found me, and took me back to her ship, the _Star Dragon_ where she and her robotic assistant, Gigavolt, took care of my injuries. Halley then tracked down Karanga with this." Pleakley held up a red sun visor. "It looks like a common sun visor, but if you look through the tinted lens, it acts like an x-ray, allowing you to see someone's bone structure. You see, Karanga can only change his outer appearance, and his scent. His bone structure, however, is unable to change. When Halley looked at Karanga, when he was disguised as me, through the lens, she knew the truth. For the past three days, Halley has maintained a close watch on Karanga to make sure you didn't become his next victims."

"Why didn't she just expose him right from the start?" Nani blinked

"Halley didn't think you would take the word of someone you just met. Besides, if you were eating dinner with someone you thought was me, and I came through the door, what would you think?"

"Good point." Nani looked off in the direction Halley and Stitch went off in. "I wish I knew how things would turn out, though."

"We can." Jumba smiled, holding up a controller. "Before Comet left, I placed something I have been working on onto her wrist. It's an organic tracing bug. Wherever she and 626 go, we can be tracking them."

"Really? Nani cried, hopefully. "Well, then come on! I've got to get Lilo back."

"Halley told us to stay here, Nani," Pleakley reminded.

"Here." Jumba handed Nani the controller to Nani. "You go help Comet and 626 save Little Girl. I'll stay and get Pleakley into the house."

"Thank you." Nani thanked the four-eyed Alien before running off after Halley and Stitch.

"You're just going to let Nani go off?" Pleakley cried out. "Halley told us to stay here.

"Please, there is no arguing with Big Sister."

"And Halley is the infamous Comet. Do I need to remind you of some of the rumors that have been told about _her_?"

"Oh!" Jumba's four eyes widened with dawning realization. "I forgot about _them_."


	7. Chapter 6: The Final Battle

Karanga, still in his disguise of Pleakley, landed on the island of Niihau, and dropped Lilo onto the beach, allowing him to transform into his true form. When Karanga turned around, Lilo had already run off. Karanga snarled, and looked around, trying to locate where his captive had went to. Suddenly, he noticed small stones rolling down a nearby rock formation and across the sand. Looking up, Karanga saw Lilo's feet disappear over a rocky ledge. Instantly, he flew up after her, just as Lilo crawled into a small crevice within the rock face, the same one where Splodyhead had hid recently. Karanga immediately began to attack the crevice, trying to widen it enough to get to Lilo. Lilo squeezed as far back into the crevice as she could. But it was no use. Karanga kept on coming, and the opening was getting bigger every second. Finally, Karanga could reach in and grab Lilo. But, just as he pulled her out, a blur of blue flew at Karanga. Lilo felt someone pull her back. She looked up to see Halley sitting atop a dome-shaped robot.

"Here you go, kiddo," Halley said, holding Lilo on the robot, who quickly hovered down to the beach. "Everything will be fine now. Gigavolt will make sure you're safe."

"Hello, young Lilo," the robot replied, as Halley and Lilo got off onto the sand. "It's good to see we made it in time. Good thing I tested my sensors last night. Otherwise, we never would have located you as soon as we did."

"What about Stitch?" Lilo asked, looking up at the ledge, as Halley took out her plasma cannon. As if on cue, Stitch fell off the ledge, and was immediately joined by a second Stitch. "Two Stitchs?" Lilo cried.

"Ráfaga!" Halley growled. "Karanga's disguising himself as your Stitch! How am I supposed to tell which one is Karanga, when I forgot my visor?"

"Stitch can handle a plasma blast, Halley. Don't worry about hurting him."

"This gun doesn't carry plasma, Lilo." Halley explained. "Each shot carries a high concentration of Crasonite. The concentration is so high, that if I were to shoot something with a body mass as low as Stitch's I'd be very surprised if that something lived."

"What are you saying?" Lilo looked up at Halley in shock.

"If I guess wrong, and shoot the real Stitch, your friend might die instantly."

"No!" Lilo tried to grab the Crasonite cannon from Halley's grasp.  
"Don't shoot Stitch."

"I don't intend to Lilo," Halley reasoned. "But I need to figure out which Stitch is the real one."

"Try asking them what Ohana means."

"Ohana?"

"Yes! Only the real Stitch would know that."

"That won't work. Stitch might know what that means, but I know Karanga. He's not a simpleton, and would have figured we'd come up with an idea like that. Most likely, Karanga scanned Stitch's memories, so now _he'll_ know as well."

"So what are we going to do?"

"I don't know."

For a full minute, Halley looked between the two Stitchs, trying to decide. Suddenly, she looked over at Lilo, who was standing against the tall rocky face, looking at Halley in fear.

"Lilo, Stitch is your friend, isn't he? He would never let you get hurt?"

"Yes, that's right. Why?"

"Because I know what to do." With that, Halley removed an orb from her utility belt and threw it at the rock face, above Lilo's head. The orb exploded on impact, sending a shower of rubble to fall towards Lilo.

"LILO!" One of the Stitchs raced for the girl, and pushed her away at the last moment. As the rubble settled, Lilo and Stitch hugged in relief. Suddenly, the second Stitch lunged for the two, and a loud explosion rang through the air. The second Stitch fell to the ground, and transformed back into Karanga. Halley stood nearby, her drawn Crasonite cannon smoking at the barrel.

"Is he dead?" Lilo asked, as Halley strode forward and draped the fallen Alien over Gigavolt's head.

"No. Karanga's body mass is greater then Stitch's, so the Crasonite concentration I used is not fatal to him. At the most, he'll just be taking a month-long nap. I hope I didn't scare you too much, Lilo. But you see, I couldn't think of any other way to tell the real Stitch apart from Karanga. Like you said, the real Stitch wouldn't have let you get hurt."

"I guess that makes sense, but what if Stitch didn't make it?"

"Gigavolt has a special rocket booster installed in him, which enables him to move at the speed of sound, if need be. If Stitch didn't make it in time, he would have intervened. That's how we all got here so fast. I never purposely place innocents in any real danger when I go after my prey, Lilo. That is against the bounty hunter's creed."

"I hope Nani understands that," Lilo smiled, as she saw her sister hurry up, the speedboat she used to reach the island pulled up onto the beach, a safe distance from the tide-line.

"Lilo, thank goodness you're safe!" Nani dropped down and hugged Lilo tightly. Lilo quickly told Nani all about her rescue. As soon as she had finished, Nani turned to Halley.

"When you went after Lilo, you knew you were going to have to pull that stunt, didn't you?"

"Well," Halley began, scratching the side of her neck, "actually, I thought it up on the spot."

"Spontaneously?"

"You could say that," Halley shrugged. Nani smiled, then, without warning, fiercely punched Halley in the nose. The force of the punch sent Halley flying to the ground, where she sat in the sand, holding her throbbing nose.

"Oh, my!" Nani stared in shock. "I've never hit anyone before."

"Really?" Halley looked up at Nani with a look that showed she was impressed, startled, and mildly annoyed. "You're quite good at it."


	8. Chapter 7: Departure

A few days had passed since Lilo's rescue, and Karanga's capture. The serial killer had been securely locked away in a airtight room aboard the _Star Dragon_, where he continued to remain unconscious from the Crasonite blast. Once everyone had arrived back home, Nani and Stitch had helped Halley properly clean and dress her injuries from her earlier fight with Karanga. For a week afterward, Nani wouldn't allow Halley to leave the house, much less move off her temporary bed on the couch, repeatedly reminding the bounty hunter that her injuries needed time to heal properly. But now that Nani decided that Halley's wounds had healed enough for her to move about the house, she had announced that she was returning to the Turo system straight away to deliver Karanga to a high-security prison asteroid. Lilo, Stitch, and the others all had gone down to Halley's ship to say goodbye.

"One last thing before you are going, Comet," Jumba began. "You never did explain how you knew my name."

"Dr. Jumba Jookiba? That's a name that's very hard to forget, especially if it belongs to an Alien scientist that stood on one of the numerous trials you attended throughout your career."

"Oh! You mean…"

"Yes, Dr. Jookiba. I was there, listening to your spiel about the blue critter you created. Which reminds me. I'm not sure you heard, but the Comet is not a true, legal member of the Galactic Federation. As such, I don't suppose I should feel guilty about returning this to you." Halley handed Jumba a sealed envelope, which was revealed to contain….

"These are being the plans I used to create 626!" Jumba cried out in surprise. "I thought they were to be destroyed!"

"Well, let's just say I know many Aliens in important places, and was able to pull a few strings."

"Why did you do this? We had never met before now?"

"I have my reasons. I was planning on keeping them but I have recently been looking over the files of your other re-purposed experiments on your computer during my period of recuperation. I have to say, I was impressed with some of the programming you thought up."

"Really?"

"One to hypnotize people, another to be a virtually unbeatable fighter, and one that can use his cuteness to lull people into a false sense of security, before felling them with a smell that is unbearable to most? Those are very impressive ideas. You know, if this 'evil genius' thing doesn't work out, you could really consider a future in military science. You've got some pretty deep insights to war, mi amigo." Stitch, meanwhile had walked forward and looked up at Halley sadly."

"Please, stay!" He begged.

"I wish I could, Stitch," Halley smiled, as she scratched his ears and fed him another piece of the strange food. "But I'm a bounty hunter. I have a responsibility to ensure Karanga is locked away where he can never threaten anyone again, and there will always be more dangerous convicts to track down. There's a reason I'm called the Comet. I come and I go. I never stay in the same area for long." Halley stood back up and began to limp back into the _Star Dragon_, where Gigavolt was waiting. Suddenly, when Halley was halfway up the ramp, she stopped and turned back to the others. "However, another thing about comets: sooner or later, they will always come back. Hasta luego, amigos. I know our paths will cross again, someday." With that, Halley disappeared into her ship, which took off moments later.

"I have to say, I'm still surprised you were able to land a punch on Halley at all, Nani," Pleakley said. "The stories I've always heard about the Comet make it sound as if nothing could catch her off guard, and no one ever attacked her directly and lived."

"Pleakley, don't you remember what Halley said?" Lilo reminded. "Halley said that she took no joy in shedding the blood of an innocent. I don't think she would ever hurt us, no matter what." Lilo turned to Stitch, who was still looking up after Halley's ship. "It's okay, Stitch. We'll see her again."

"That's right," Nani added. "Comets do come and go, never staying in one area for long. But if you wait awhile, they always come back."


End file.
